Spotify picks up lobbyist amid fight with Apple

Spotify picked up another outside lobbyist this month as it fights antitrust and copyright battles, according to filing published this week.

A team from Crossroads Strategies will lobby on issues “related to ongoing licensing, copyright, intellectual property, and related issues in the music and technology industries” as well as “issues related to antitrust.”

{mosads}The latter is of particular interest because of Spotify’s ongoing war with Apple Music. Spotify claims that the much-larger Apple has used a commissions system for applications in its mobile store, like Spotify, to raise prices for its services that compete with Apple’s streaming service.

That’s a case that Spotify has increasingly been making in Washington. The company been lobbying lawmakers on the issue in an attempt to recruit Capitol Hill allies to its cause.

The controversy has also escalated because Spotify recently directed users to subscribe online, rather than in its iOS app. Apple says that’s an end-run around their systems.

Spotify has also had to contend with questions on copyright law as it faces criticism from artists over its delivery of royalties.

Ten lobbyists from Crossroads Strategies are registered to work for Spotify, according to a filing that was first noted by Politico on Friday and posted online earlier in the week.

The Swedish company’s United States branch spent $740,000 on federal lobbying in 2015, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.